Free Republic

When asked in February what his proudest accomplishment was as a leading figure in the Obama administration, former White House advisor David Axelrod replied by touting the administration’s record on ethics. “I’m proud of the fact that basically you’ve had an administration that’s been in place for six years in which there hasn’t been a major scandal,” he said. To this, conservatives laughed. There is a difference between being scandal-free and deftly navigating the media environment to ensure that no individual controversy shatters the foundations of the public’s trust in the president. While the administration’s political team has been able...

The case against Marco Rubio David Harsanyi makes the case for Marco Rubio, who entered the presidential race yesterday. The case is this: “When it comes to natural political talent, it unlikely the GOP can do better” than Rubio.Harsanyi may well be right. We don’t know how Rubio will perform as a candidate over the long haul, but all indications are that he is a gifted politician.But what kind of president would Rubio make? Surely the question is relevant, particularly because there may be other GOP hopeful who could run well against Hillary Clinton.Here we come to the case against...

Jeb Bush will have a big problem to overcome in a campaign, former President George W. Bush told a health-industry conference yesterday, and he should know. The problem will be “me,” Jeb’s older brother told the audience of 7,000, and even their mother realizes the nature of the burden: “It’s an easy line to say, ‘Haven’t we had enough Bushes?’ After all, even my mother said, ‘Yes,’” the former president told an audience of 7,000 health IT experts here on Wednesday.“That’s why you won’t see me out there, and he doesn’t need to defend me, and he’s totally different...

In an op-ed piece run by the New York Times, columnist Charles Blow, a self-described “social justice” advocate, accused “white men” of having their “egos goosed” by the declaration from Hillary Clinton that she is running for President. The article, titled “Woe of White Men, Again,” is poorly argued and nearly incomprehensible to anyone without a tremendous political bias. Mr. Blow begins his piece by writing about conservative commentators who he believes are upset at Hillary Clinton for running. “Hillary Clinton’s entry into the race for the presidency has goosed the egos of some conservative ganders,” he writes. He then...

Hillary Clinton lauds Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as a “progressive champion” in a Time magazine tribute written amidst calls from the left that Clinton should use the freshman senator as a model in her presidential bid. Praising Warren’s “unflagging determination to level the playing field for hardworking American families” and her goal of helping others “Share in the American Dream,” Clinton compared the senator to the “liberal lion,” former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass). “It was always going to take a special kind of leader to pick up Ted Kennedy’s mantle as senior Senator from Massachusetts—champion of working families and scourge...

Gov. Scott Walker's likely 2016 presidential campaign got a boost Thursday when two of his longtime campaign managers formed a political group that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, The Associated Press reports. They are calling the group Unintimidated PAC, a reference to [Governor Scott] Walker's 2013 book, "Unintimidated: A Governor's Story and a Nation's Challenge." The AP reports that the super PAC will be led by Keith Gilkes, a longtime Walker aide who ran Walker's 2010 gubernatorial campaign and previously served as his chief of staff. Gilkes also ran Walker's successful 2012 recall election, which was triggered...

Senator Marco Rubio kicked off his campaign for President this week with an unexpected generational throw down. "This election is a generational choice about what kind of country we will be," Rubio said Monday night as he kicked off his bid for the White House. …"Just yesterday, a leader from yesterday began a campaign for president by promising to take us back to yesterday," Rubio said. "Yesterday is over -- and we're never going back." I should be offended as I’m quite sure Marco’s speech was – in addition to being part of the Republican War on Women - an...

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and five of their likely rivals for the Republican presidential nomination including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will be speaking at an economic summit hosted at Walt Disney World in June by Gov. Rick Scott and his campaign fund Let's Get To Work. Brecht Heuchan of Let's Get To Work said Rubio, Bush, Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry all have accepted invitations to speak at the June 2 summit at Disney's Yacht and Beach...

Hillary is "the one." She is our gift from God. Mana from Heaven. The gift that keeps on giving. Conservatives should get down on their knees and thank God for Hillary. Okay, enough thanking and praying. Now let's destroy her. I speak at business conferences all over the world about my expertise- branding. The GOP has the greatest branding opportunity in modern history. Hillary is easier to brand than even Mitt Romney was for Democrats. Destroy Hillary now and it leaves Democrats between a rock and a hard place. Here's how to brand Hillary. This will be fun. It's like...

Hillary Clinton sounded like a woman on a mission after her long drive into the heartland: “There’s something wrong,” she told Iowans on Tuesday, when “hedge fund managers pay lower taxes than nurses or the truckers I saw on I-80 when I was driving here over the last two days.” But back in Manhattan, the hedge fund managers who’ve long been part of her political and fundraising networks aren’t sweating the putdown and aren’t worrying about their take-home pay just yet.

"...................The Senate Judiciary Committee, which conducts hearings on presidential nominees to the High Court, currently consists of 11 Republicans and 9 Democrats. Republicans hold a 54-member majority in the Senate, the governing body that confirms presidential nominees to the Court. If these numbers remain unchanged or only slightly changed under a Republican president, that president would have wide latitude to nominate candidates who have tested and principled commitments to conservatism. Let’s say the presidential election favored a Democrat. A Democratic president could simply replace the departing Justice Ginsburg or Justice Breyer with a jurist in their mold, in effect filling...

Hillary Clinton is making campaign appearances in Iowa under extremely controlled conditions, and during one event she spoke of commerce:

VIDEO This is Just sad. On Tuesday in Iowa, Hillary Clinton’s ‘Mystery Machine’ van was seen arriving at her first campaign event when, suddenly, a flock of reporters chased after her. The footage has produced a comedic response of sorts:

In news only slightly more surprising than this morning's sunrise, Hillary Rodham Clinton announced she is running for president again. The announcement came in the form of a clever video in which Clinton says she wants to be a champion for "everyday Americans" -- an obviously focus-grouped term intended to replace "middle class." I like it, but unless they're very careful, "everyday" has a condescending tinge that could backfire (synonyms include: "dull," "unexceptional" and "commonplace"). One can already imagine a "Saturday Night Live" version of Clinton looking out the window of her private jet: "Wow, those everyday Americans look like...

[SNIP]...Republican candidates get grilled, sometimes impertinently, and pressed, sometimes brusquely. And it isn’t true that they’re only questioned in this way once they announce, Scott Walker has been treated like this also, and he has yet to announce. Republicans see this, and then they see that Mrs. Clinton isn’t grilled, is never forced to submit to anyone’s morning-show impertinence, is never the object of the snotty question or the sharp demand for information. She gets the glide. She waves at the crowds and the press and glides by. No one pushes. No one shouts the rude question or rolls out...

In every election we get the “Which candidate would you rather have a beer with?” question. It’s a shorthand for testing how genuine, fun and likable a candidate may be. With the exception of Richard Nixon in 1968, the nicer guy actually does finish first in most elections. Politics after all is the marriage of personality and policy, so it’s worth looking at candidates from a non-ideological point of view, which by the way is how a lot of casual voters who turn out only in presidential races make up their minds. We will start with an easy one. David...

There's not much to add to this ridiculous video. On MSNBC today, Ed Schultz was speaking with newly minted daytime host Thomas Roberts about Hillary's campaign stop in Iowa, when he said ... well, exactly what you would expect Ed Schultz to say. Your questions are beneath Hillary. "I don't think Hillary Clinton wants press. I think she wants people. And I think she doesn't have to answer any questions right now. And I think what she's going to do in Iowa is not focus on press but focus on what people have to say. And I think that Hillary...

"...Mr. Walker is the top presidential choice for 24 percent of GOP primary voters, according to the poll out Wednesday from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. ....Mr. Walker was viewed most favorably by GOP primary voters; 57 percent had a favorable opinion of him, compared to 13 percent who had an unfavorable opinion. He also led among a swath of the potential primary electorate, winning over GOP voters who identified themselves as “moderate,” “somewhat conservative” and “very conservative.”....

Writing at National Review Online (and speaking for herself, not the editorial board), Myra Adams offers “Five Reasons Why Hillary Wins in 2016.”  It is worth examining her reasoning and looking not to dismiss it, but rather for means of countering the strengths she cites.  Presidential politics are very challenging for the GOP these days, and demographic trends, spurred by immigration policy, do not favor conservatives. Reason number one: “First Female President” The Democrats discovered and brilliantly exploited the “historic first” strategy with Barack Obama, foisting a radical, inexperienced rookie senator on us.  There are about four times more...

".....Back in 1999, Walker was a 31-year-old state assemblyman, while Clinton was preparing to run for the U.S. Senate in New York as a Democrat. In January of that year, the future Badger State governor called into Bob and Brian, a popular morning radio talk show based in Milwaukee and heard throughout the state. Among Walker's comments about the state and national political news was his assessment of Clinton's political assets and liabilities. "Her poll numbers do very, very well when she’s not talking about much and when, quite frankly, when people feel a bit sympathetic for her having to...